This invention relates generally to sighting devices for firearms, archery bows, or other projectile launching devices, and more particularly to a self-illuminated sighting device having both a light collector, such as a fluorescent-doped fiber optic, and an artificial light source for illuminating the light collector in low light or dark conditions.
Sighting devices using short segments of light gathering fiber optics, such as scintillating or fluorescent-doped fiber optics, are currently in use. Such fiber optics gather ambient light along their length and transmit that light to their ends. Under ideal lighting conditions, one end of the fiber optic typically serves as a bright aiming point, the brightness being directly dependent on the level of ambient light incident on the length of fiber optic. However, the short segments of fiber optic have a limited light gathering ability. Under very low lighting conditions, such as at late dusk or early dawn, the sight point may not have sufficient brightness to satisfy some users. In order to augment the brightness of the sight point under these conditions, the addition of artificial light sources such as battery-operated LED's or tritium-type devices has been proposed.
However, installation of the individual components, such as the artificial light source and light gathering fiber optic, into the cavity of a gun sight or the like is time consuming and error prone since it is difficult to determine through the opaque sight blade whether the components are axially aligned, resulting in less than adequate illumination of the sight point. It would therefore be desirable to provide a self-illuminating sighting device that overcomes at least some of the disadvantages of the prior art.